Free!-fishes
by Levi Collins
Summary: Major character death and major angst so enter with caution. Sorry it's poorly written...please review! This story is dedicated to Nicole aka on tumblr as ask-makotoandharu happy birthday Nicole :3


Makoto smiled brightly as he received a bag of fish from Haruka. Nagisa Jumped up and down excitedly as he enthusiastically said "You should name them after us, there's enough right? One, two three, four, there is enough!" Nagisa kept repeating himself as he continued to jump up and down at Makoto's side, almost knocking him over in the act of it. Rei did his best to attempt to calm Nagisa down, however that didn't work. It never did.  
Makoto, being the nice spirit he is, gave into the enthusiastic Nagisa, who could say no to that face? So he named one "Rei" one "Nagisa" one "Rin" and one "Haruka" after all of his closest friends. The idea seemed nice and even cute at the time, until things took affect that is. That was when everything took a turn for the worse.  
The tall male woke up to his phone ringing over and over again, he answered it as he sat up in his bed tiredly "Hello?" he answered with whatever energy he could muster up at the moment. "Mako-chan?! It's serious, it's Rei! He was on the subway and now everything's bad and-"Nagisa kept rambling in a panicked voice until Makoto could calm him down enough to explain.  
"He's dead." He finally said clearly, his throat clenching up resulting in his voice to sound raspy and shaky.  
"What?" Makoto asked in both disbelief and seriousness.  
"He died earlier."  
"B-but how?"  
Then Nagisa continued to explain to Makoto what happened, Makoto's anxiety continued to build up throughout the conversation, his palms so sweaty that the phone almost slipped through them several times. The phone call ended with Makoto trying to help Nagisa to stop crying, even though he himself was on the verge of tears.  
After the phone call Makoto decided to get dressed and to make sure Haruka was ok after hearing the news, even though Rei and Haruka weren't very close, death would affect anyone. So he passed his fish bowl on the way out of his room and out of the corner of his eye he noticed a fish floating belly up at the top of the water.  
He got a closer look and the fish was dead, death was everywhere today wasn't it? Makoto widened his eyes slightly at the realization that the fish that died was the one that was name Rei. That was….ironic. Makoto disposed of the fish into a tiny fish grave right next to his original one. Tears welling up in his eyes.  
His friend was gone, his beloved friend, and everyone was sad because of it. Not only had that happened but another one of his fish died the fish that was name after his friend. Was that a cruel sign or something? Or maybe it was purely coincidence?  
Makoto shook those thoughts out of his head as he went to go see Haruka.  
A little after a month after Rei died, everyone was obviously still grieving. Nagisa probably the most out of anyone. Makoto wished he could help but, how does one help someone grieve over someone's death? Nagisa and Rei were close, not just in age but as friends as well, it was sad that Nagisa had to go through this.  
The tall teen sighed and got up out of his spot on the couch he was sitting on, it wasn't good for him to make himself sad by thinking about this so much. He wished he could just accept death better like others, but it wasn't possible for someone as overly nice and as kind as Makoto. He could shake the thoughts out of his head while doing simple tasks though.  
While grieving Makoto typically tried to busy himself with chores around the house when he wasn't with Haruka. So he decided to get to work.  
After washing the dished and mopping the floor, he went to his room to feed his fish. After grabbing the fish food from the cupboard he made his way to the location of his fishbowl and yet another floating object in the bowl caught his eye.  
It was another dead fish; this one was the fish name Nagisa. Makoto let a few tears slide down his cheek as he buried yet another fish in yet another grave outside, right next to Rei. Then he felt a sudden frightening feeling as his phone buzzed in his pocket and shocked him back to reality.  
"Hello?" He answered with a slightly shaky voice.  
"Makoto? It's Nagisa." Haruka said his voice soft on the other line.  
"W-what about him?"  
Makoto feared what Haruka's explanation would be, feared that he already knew what it was. He pushed those awful thoughts to the back of his head, he was just being paranoid, and these types of events would trigger that wouldn't they?  
"He's dead." Haruka said his voice growing even quieter than it was before.  
"H-how?" Makoto said as tears found their way out of his eyes and making a trail down his cheeks.  
Haruka explained that Nagisa had hung himself and left a suicide note stating something about not being able to live without Rei. Makoto found himself to be sobbing by the end of the call, which didn't help him trying to convince Haru that he was alright.  
Days past after that and Makoto cried every single one of them. Two of his friends were gone and he couldn't help but think that it was his fault. Was it something to do with the fish? Or was this a coincidence? It seemed too unlikely to be a coincidence, but how would the death of his fish cause the death of his friends? It was too unreal and too sad and too cruel! He could barely handle the death of his fish, the death of a friendly sailor, and now the death of two of his closest friends? It was too unbearable and….Wait.  
There were still two fish left, two friends left. What would happen if the two fish died? Would the rest of his friends go as well? No! He couldn't let that happen! If he knew what was going to happen in the beginning then he wouldn't have accepted the fish, he wouldn't have named them after his closest friends and he wouldn't have allowed any of those fish to die! He needed to make sure that that didn't happen, he couldn't let that happen.  
He got up to go to where his fish bowl was he stared at the remaining two fish circling the bowl around each other. So peaceful, but so…sad. If they died, so would his friends. He wouldn't be able to handle another death, especially not if it was Haru. Hell no, he wouldn't even allow that thought to cross his mind. He couldn't afford to.  
He shook his head, what was he going to do? If these fish died then so would his friends and, it's not like he could prevent an inevitable death. These fish don't live that long so it wouldn't be long until they did pass, so what would he do?  
His heart sank as he picked up his ringing phone to Haruka. Haruka called him often after Rei's death, and even more often after Nagisa's. Probably to make sure that he was okay, but really Makoto should be making sure that Haruka was okay.  
"Makoto, are you sure you are okay?" Haruka asked in a worried tone.  
"Yes Haru, I'm fine. Just a little…sad. But, that's normal after someone's….passing."  
"Yeah, but, do you need me to come over or something. I mean I'm not good at helping people grieve but, I could be there for…moral support, or something."  
"Thanks Haru, but I'm fine. Are you feeling okay?"  
"Me? Yeah. I mean, I'm kind of sad too but, I'm more worried about you."  
"Don't worry Haru, I'll be okay."  
"You sure?"  
"Yeah."  
"Ok, bye I guess.  
"Bye."  
Makoto hung up the phone, suddenly longing for the sound of Haruka's voice. He wanted to hear it to make sure that Haruka was okay; he wanted to be selfish and to keep Haruka on the phone so that he could make sure he wasn't doing anything reckless and that nothing bad would happen. But, that was unrealistic of him wasn't it?  
He sighed and his shoulders slumped, he was in a hard spot right now and no amount of thinking would fix it. But, maybe it was just his paranoia? Maybe it wasn't the fish and maybe it was a coincidence. It was foolish of him to think that every time his fish died then someone else would, right? Or, was he just trying to fool himself?  
A month past and Makoto felt his paranoia lift, his remaining friends were fine and they were all doing their best to cope with everything. Makoto still had a little bit of paranoia in the back of his head, but that's where it stayed as he walked home from school with Haruka.  
"Haru, do you need help studying for the test?" Makoto asked with his usual smile as he walked alongside his dear friend.  
"Makoto, I'm not the incapable child you think I am." Haruka said with his usual apathetic expression.  
"I didn't say that!"  
"You implied it."  
"I did no such thing, Haru!"  
Then Makoto's phone rang. He picked it up with a chuckle to hear Gou's sobbing voice on the other line.  
"Gou? Is everything alright?" He asked in a rushed and worried tone.  
"It Rin." She sobbed into the phone.  
Makoto's heart beat picked up as he waited for an explanation.  
"He. He is...He's dead." She said.  
Makoto's heart stopped speeding up, it stopped. And so did him. His grip on his phone loosened and almost dropped to the floor as all he could do is stare forward. A worried Haruka was at his side as he tried to get a reaction out of him and then out of nowhere he started sprinting home.  
It couldn't be true? Could it? His fish was still alive right? This didn't have anything to do with his fish, did it? All of these thoughts and more rushed through his head as he sprinted at top speed towards him house. He burst through the door and continued sprinting until he got to his room.  
Breathless, he looked at his fish bowl and his eyes widened, tears flowing down his cheek in a rapid manor as he saw his fish. Rin was dead, and so was his fish. This couldn't be. It couldn't be true.  
There was now only one fish left, one friend. He turned around frantically and Haruka stood in his door way, also breathless from chasing after him. Wordlessly Makoto hugged Haruka as tightly as he could, unwilling to let his friend go.  
Haruka hugged him back, albeit softly. "Makoto?" he said softly. Makoto didn't answer as he cried into Haruka's shoulder. "Makoto?" He said again.  
"Don't leave me Haru." He sobbed as he continued to hold Haruka close.  
Haruka let a tear fall as he held Makoto close as well "I won't." He promised. Although, that was a promise that he didn't have the power to keep.  
A week had passed since Rin's death and Makoto stuck to Haruka like glue, unwilling to let the raven out of his sight. Haruka didn't mind, but he couldn't help but feel a little worried for his friend. They were all grieving, they've lost three friends. But, Makoto desperately clung to his last one in fear of losing him as well; Haruka didn't think this was the healthy way people typically reacted. But, he didn't care. If he could help his friend then he was more than willing to stay by his side.  
"Haru," Makoto said to Haruka, they were both in Makoto's room "Do you want to go swimming tomorrow?" he asked with a slight tone of happiness.  
"Sure." Haruka smiled softly.  
Makoto smiled and sat down next to Haruka "We can go to the beach to swim, it'll be fun." He said. Instead of constantly crying to Haruka in his room, he would rather do something to take his mind off of the whole thing and to also make Haruka happy.  
So the next day the two of them went to the beach and swam with each other. Eventually Makoto got a little tired and went onto shore to rest on a towel, falling asleep in the sun after a little while.  
He woke up and noticed that Haruka was no longer there so he got his stuff together. He must have left early without me, it's my fault for falling asleep, Makoto thought to himself. So he then went home and fell asleep as soon as his head hit his pillow.  
However, the next morning when he woke up he heard some news that was shocking to him.  
After turning on his TV to the news channel like he did with his family every morning, there was news that a boy washed up on shore that morning. The boy was Haruka Nanase, and he had drowned the night before.  
Makoto's world went still, his heart stopped and he didn't even have the energy to cry. He had cried too much and he had no more tears to shed. He simply got up and went upstairs. He shut and locked his door and looked at his fish bowl. Haruka floated belly up, dead. Just like the real Haru.  
He looked forward again, a single tear flowing down his cheek as he prepared some things. A rope, a chair, and of course, his ceiling.  
Tying the rope to the ceiling and leaving a loop on the bottom, Makoto positioned his chair directly underneath it. Ready to finish it off.  
If he could have saved at least one of them, at least Haru, then maybe he wouldn't feel so bad. If he had named one of the fishes after himself, then maybe one of his friends could have lived. Maybe he wouldn't be left, all alone.  
All of his friends are gone, and he is alone, with no one to blame but himself. Those were his last thoughts as he kicked his chair out from underneath him, and then everything went black. His world dissolved from under his feet.  
((Sorry it's short and sorry it's kind of poorly written ._.But there you have it, my angst for Free! Sorry if you hate me now .-. Please review!))


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